News
Sword Gai Anime's Trailer Previews Yūto Uemura's Opening Song
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Netflix Japan began streaming a trailer for Sword Gai: The Animation, the anime adaptation of Toshiki Inoue, Osamu Kine, and Keita Amamiya's Sword Gai manga, on Friday. The video previews the opening theme song "Sadame Goto" (What is Predestined), which Yūto Uemura performs as his character Gai Ogata.
The anime premiered worldwide on Netflix on Friday. The "Netflix Anime Matsuri! Space Stage" event at the AnimeJapan convention will host Uemura and Umehara, as well as announce new information about the anime on Saturday. The anime itself will also have a special talk show event at AnimeJapan on Sunday.
The anime's main cast includes (from left to right in image below) Yuichiro Umehara as Seiya Ichijō, Yūto Uemura as protagonist Gai Ogata, and Yuka Aisaka as Sayaka Ogata.
The cast also includes:
Tomokazu Sugita as Naoki Miki
Hiro Shimono as Marcus Lithos
Toshihiko Seki as Takuma Miura
Rina Satou as Kyōka Kagami
Takaya Kuroda as Grimms
The remaining cast members include:
From left to right, then top to bottom in the image above:
Michiko Neya as Aronisu
Kohei Murakami as Ariga I
Urara Takano as Yasuko Tanaka
Ayane Sakura as Midoriko
Takaya Hashi as Kazuma Matoba
Not pictured:
Kenji Hamada as Tatsumi
Yu Shimamura as Mina Hiraya
Masaharu Satō as Kigetsu
Sumi Shimamoto as Kei
Kousuke Toriumi as Hakimu
Takahiro Ikezoe (Show by Rock!! director) is serving as chief director while Tomohito Naka (New Theatrical Movie Initial D Legend 2: Racer) is directing. Original writer Toshiki Inoue is handling series composition. Atsuko Nakajima (Getbackers) is designing the characters, Toshiki Kameyama (Nisekoi) is the sound director, and Kotaro Nakagawa (Code Geass) is composing the music. LandQ studios is listed as the primary animation production company along with DLE Inc. and Production I.G.
Other staff members include:
Art Director: Seiko Akashi
3D Directors: Akihiko Kimura, Kenji Isobe
Color design: Masato Sasaki
Monthly Hero's Magazine originally announced the anime in 2014. At the time, the announcement noted that the anime would be a collaboration between Flash anime studio DLE Inc. (Eagle Talon, Thermae Romae) and entertainment content company Fields.
The story revolves around Gai, who was born beside a woman who met her death in a forest. He was adopted by the swordsmith Amon. A few years later, Gai becomes Amon's apprentice, and during the forging of a sword, he loses his right arm. To help him, Amon crushes the demon sword Shiryū (lit. Death Dragon) to form it into Gai's replacement right arm. Gai then is able to fuse with the weapon on his arm, and fights against his enemies.
Inoue (Kamen Rider 555, Kamen Rider Agito, Chōjin Sentai Jetman, Chaos;HEAd series composition, screenplay) wrote the manga's story, while Osamu Kine drew the manga from original character designs by Keita Amemiya (Garo creator/director, Zeiram character design). The manga began serializing in the December 2012 issue of Monthly Hero's Magazine, and ended in October 2015. Shogakukan published six volumes for the series. A sequel series, titled Sword Gai Evolve and with the same creative staff, launched in Monthly Hero's Magazine in November 2015 and is ongoing. Shogakukan published the manga's fourth compiled book volume on March 5.
The manga already inspired a 3D CG promotional video by Digital Frontier (Wolf Children production, Summer Wars 3D graphics) in 2013.
